Headed by the Principal Investigator Celia Carlini, the LaNeurotox – Laboratory of Neurotoxins, is part of the Brain Institute (Instituto do Cérebro – InsCer), Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), in the city of Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. At LaNeurotox, we study, at the physicochemical and biological levels, proteins and peptides with neurotoxic properties. We work in close collaboration with the Laboratory of Toxic Proteins – Laprotox (www.ufrgs.br/laprotox), Center of Biotechnology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), also coordinated by Dr. Carlini.

The LaNeurotox team is composed of researchers of different units of UFRGS and PUCRS, both located in the city of Porto Alegre, RS. Brazil, as well as investigators of other institutions in Brazil and abroad. Graduate students at the Ph.D. and M.Sc. levels, post-docotral fellows, undergraduate students and administrative and technical staff are fundamental part of our team.

Ureases are multifunctional toxic proteins. At LaNeurotox we apply cellular, molecular and biophysical approaches to study the structural and biological properties of ureases from bacteria, fungi and plants. We aim to understand how ureases exert their many biological roles (enzyme, defense, virulence factor, communication) in the source organisms and in those affected by their actions. We are particularly interested in understanding how the neurotoxic properties of ureases and derived peptides contribute to their insecticidal activity and excitotoxicity to mammals.

Headed by the Principal Investigator Celia Carlini, the LaNeurotox – Laboratory of Neurotoxins, is part of the Brain Institute (Instituto do Cérebro – InsCer), Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), in the city of Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. At LaNeurotox, we study, at the physicochemical and biological levels, proteins and peptides with neurotoxic properties. We work in close collaboration with the Laboratory of Toxic Proteins – Laprotox (www.ufrgs.br/laprotox), Center of Biotechnology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), also coordinated by Dr. Carlini.

The LaNeurotox team is composed of researchers and students of different units of UFRGS and PUCRS, both located in the city of Porto Alegre, RS. Brazil, as well as investigators of other institutions in Brazil and abroad. We work together with the Laboratory of Toxic Proteins – Laprotox, at UFRGS, also coordinated by Dr. Celia Carlini. At LaNeurotox we study, at physicochemical and biological level, proteins and peptides with neurotoxic action on the nervous systems of mammals and insects. In this virtual tour you will learn about our research interests and what we are doing right now.

Thiago Carrazoni defended on March 9th, 2017, his thesis entitled “Central and Peripheral Neurotoxicity induced by the major urease of Canavalia ensiformis in insect model”, before the Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Congratulations Thiago !!

Dr. Jan Tytgat, full professor and PI of the Toxicology and Pharmacology Laboratory at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, visited LaNeurotox and the Brain Institute (InsCer) at PUCRS on Dec 5th, 2016. Expert on the use of neurotoxins as molecular tools to study ion channels, Tytgat is collaborating with LaNeurotox team to unravel the mechanism of neurotoxic action of ureases and Jaburetox.

Matheus Grahl, initiation in science fellow working at LaNeurotox-Laprotox, has graduated in Biomedicine at UniRitter, in Dec 7th/2016, defending his monography entitled “Toxic Effects of the urease-derived peptide, Jaburetox, in the central nervous system and salivary glands of the model insect Rhodnius prolixus”. Congratulations Matheus !

Angela Menegassi defended the Ph.D. thesis ““Identification, structural and funcional characterization of aquaporines in soybean (Glycine max) and involvmente in the transport of urea” in May 29, 2015, at UFRGS.

The Brazilian Academy of Sciences, in an event held from may 4th to 6th 2015, has hosted a conference by Dr. Jules Hoffmann, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, for the discovery of the innate immune system, shared in animals from insects to mammals, the Toll receptors and the transcription factor NFkB.